White Croatia
The earliest Dukes and Kings we know of lived in the 9th and the 10th century (see a figure of an unknown Croatian Dignitary). The strongest among them was King Tomislav, who ruled from from 910 to 928. The previously mentioned Constantine Porphyrogenitus, a Byzantine emperor, referred to him as the Croatian King. In his time Croatia was one of the most powerful states in Europe. It had an enormous (for that time) army of 100,000 foot-soldiers and 60,000 horsemen, 80 larger and 100 smaller ships.
When Bulgaria occupied Serbia in 924, King Tomislav accepted and protected many Serbs who had escaped and sought refuge in the Croatian state. The Bulgarian tsar Simeon soon tried to spread his reign to Croatia, but Tomislav defeated him in 927. The Croatian Duke Branimir made further steps in strengthening the relations with Rome. During the solemn divine service in St. Peter's church in Rome in 879, Pope John VIII gave his blessing to the duke and the whole Croatian people, about which he informed Branimir in his letters. In his letter dated from 881 the Pope addressed Branimir as the `glorious duke'. This was the first time that the Croatian state was officially recognized (at that time the international legitimacy was given by the Pope). In Branimir's time, Venetians had to pay taxes to the Croatian state for their ships traveling along the Croatian coast.
Some of the earliest Benedictine monasteries in Croatia were founded in Karin, 850, Bisevo, islet near the island of Vis, 850, Rizinice (near Split), 852, Zadar, St Krsevan, 908, Nin, St Ambrosius, 941, Nin, St Maria, 948, Ugljan (on the island of Ugljan near Zadar), 988, It is interesting that both names Uljan and Uglian(o) can be seen on old maps of the island. Today there are altogether eight benedictine communities for nuns in Croatia: on the islands of Cres, Hvar, Krk, Pag, Rab, and in the towns of Sibenik, Trogir and Zadar. The only benedictine monastary for monks that remained to these days is on the island of Pasman near Sibenik, not far from Zadar. See redovnice (nuns) and redovnici (monks).
Probably the greatest achievement of Croatian Pre-Romanesque sculpture is choir screen panel from the Church of St. Domenica (Sv. Nediljica) in Zadar, with scenes of the Massacre of the Innocents and the Flight to Egypt, created in the 11th century (André Malraux included it into his "Musée imaginaire"). The Croats were deeply devoted to the Western Church. When Pope Alexander III visited Zadar in 1177, one of the most beautiful European cities, he was solemnly greeted by people singing very old songs in their Croatian language (as noted by Italian chronicler Baronius): "...immensis laudibus et canticis altissime resonantibus in eorum Sclavica lingua." The Serbs organized their earliest internationally recognized Kingdom in 1217.
Zadar was an important European cultural center at that time due to its Benedictine monastery of St. Krsevan (founded in 986, shelled by the Serbs in 1991), in whose scriptorium the famous Vekenega Evangelistary. This richly illuminated Latin text from the 11th century is held today in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (which also possesses other important Croatian documents written in the Latin, Glagolitic and Croatian Cyrillic Script).